“12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” (Page 60, Big Book)
“No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress.” (Page 60, Big Book)
What are the principles? They are they Steps.
What are the Steps? They summarise the Programme:
“The Twelve Steps that summarize the program may be called los Doce Pasos in one country, les Douze Étapes in another, but they trace exactly the same path to recovery that was blazed by the earliest members of Alcoholics Anonymous.” (Foreword to the Third Edition)
What is the programme? The contents of the first portion of
this volume (up to page 164).
“Therefore, the first portion of this volume, describing the A.A. recovery program, has been left largely untouched in the course of revisions made for the second, third, and fourth editions.”
Principles = Steps = Programme = contents up to page 164.
What are we to practise in all our affairs? Precisely this.